Providing Agriculture with Access to the Carbon Markets: American Carbon Registry

1. Providing Agriculture with Access to the Carbon Markets: American Carbon Registry Agriculture and Carbon Markets: Making Carbon Count June 10, 2010 Davis, California

2. American Carbon Registry • First and largest U.S. private voluntary GHG registry • Founded 1997 by Environmental Defense Fund and Environmental Resources Trust • Over 30 million tons issued to date • 2008: most widely used voluntary registry in the world (State of the Voluntary Carbon Market 2009) • Established industry standard for transparent on-line reporting and serialization of verified project-based offsets • Joined Winrock International in 2007 • Project types: • Forestry (AR, IFM, REDD), livestock manure, landfill gas, wastewater treatment, Carbon Capture & Storage, industrial gas substitution, fugitive methane in oil & gas sector, truck stop idling

3. Winrock carbon expertise • Internationally recognized team of AFOLU carbon experts • Nobel prize winners for IPCC contributions • Member of CDM EB Afforestation/Reforestation Working Group • Former Board member now Executive Secretary of UNFCCC • Terrestrial carbon analyses, methodologies, protocols, methods manuals for – • USDA, U.S. Forest Service, USDOE 1605(b) • Two DOE Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships • USAID, World Bank, International Tropical Timber Organization • EPRI and electric utilities • Methodologies for CCAR, VCS, ACR, CCBA, RGGI • For USEPA: • Scoping and ranking AFOLU GHG mitigation activities • Developing new Climate Leaders methodologies

4. Protocol Development Process • ACR publishes general and sector-specific standards • Flexibility in methodology choice • Use ACR-published methodology • Use approved CDM methodology • Propose/modify existing methodology • Submit new methodology for approval • Public consultation and anonymous scientific peer review of all standards and methodologies • Shortest time to market and lowest cost • Emphasis on scientific rigor • Balance environmental integrity with commercial flexibility

5. Recent and Forthcoming Standards, Methodologies and Tools

6. N2O from Fertilizer in the U.S. • Analysis of 129m acres wheat, corn and cotton in 31 states • 6.2m tonnes of nitrogen applied • 3 fertilizer types • Modified Bouwman model: • Fertilizer quantity, type, soil texture and drainage, pH soil carbon concentration used to predict N2O emissions • 61m tonnes CO2e emissions • 70% corn, 25% wheat, 5% cotton • 0.12 - 1.45 tCO2e ac-1yr-1

7. County-level emissions from anhydrous ammonia (tCO2e/acre-yr) Cotton Corn Wheat

8. N2O Methodology Development • Phase I: simplified Bouwman methodology • Fertilizer type, soil carbon concentration, drainage, pH, soil texture, crop type • Test sites in AR (cotton), IA (corn), CA (lettuce) • Improvement on IPCC Tier 1; insufficient for seasonal variations • Phase II: highly parameterized, calibrated model • Examine changes in fertilizer type, quantity, timing, placement • No decrease in yield • Accounts for site-specific and temporal factors • Direct N2O emissions from fertilizer, and indirect emissions from nitrate leaching and ammonia volatilization, estimated for baseline and project scenario • Data-intensive but rigorous results; cost-effective for aggregated projects

9. Future Work in Ag Space • Improved Grazing Land Management • Soil carbon enhancement, enteric methane, manure management • Agricultural soil carbon enhancement • Reducing N2O emissions from poultry operations in Arkansas • Reducing CH4 emissions from rice operations in Arkansas • Possible rangeland and agricultural methodologies in Australia • China: enhancing grassland productivity and reducing livestock methane emissions

10. Further Information Nicholas Martin Chief Technical Officer, American Carbon Registry nmartin@winrock.org www.americancarbonregistry.org (703) 842-9500